Jenny slung her knapsack over her shoulder as she left the last shop on her list, her mind filled with concern as the knapsack wasn't even half full and most of her money was now gone.

The situation in town was worse than Bardjuna had led her to believe and she had only been able to buy enough supplies to last herself and Alec about another week before they'd be exhausted. She nibbled on her lower lip as she thought about what her options were and how she would ever manage to convince Alec that she needed to find some way to make money or they'd most likely starve to death long before they could ever fix up the Tardis enough to leave the planet.

There hadn't been any reports of any ships coming into the main spaceport for months now, the local governments continued to send calls for aid but for some reason those calls went unanswered.

She paused and stretched her neck slightly, trying hard not to let the exhaustion that she'd been fighting for months weigh her down. There seemed to be no end in sight. She was finally at her wits end and with Alec getting sicker by the day, she was starting to feel a little desperate.

The crowd seemed to jostle around her, people barely pausing to look up at her before moving around her and continuing on their way. The marketplace had always been the one place on the planet that had always felt somewhat normal, where people didn't always look at a stranger with mistrust and worry but that had changed recently as well.

She'd been chased out of more than one town on this planet when she'd overstayed her welcome and she'd learned enough to tell people that she was from another town that was just on the other side of a town she'd just left. She didn't offer her real name up freely and with her darker hair and shorter stature, she was able to blend in somewhat with the locals if she didn't talk too much.

There always seemed to be a clock ticking in the back of her mind though, and she knew that sooner or later she was going to have to move on. The problem this time was that she didn't know how she was going to move to another town with Alec so ill and the Tardis so damaged.

There was nothing to it but to try to repair the Tardis as best they could and try to coax one more flight out of her. Alec's instant refusal of even entertaining that option told Jenny just how dangerous such an endeavor might be for the damaged ship.

She shifted her shoulders to settle her knapsack more comfortably on her back, before she took a deep breath and set off across the marketplace to the animal pens that would lead her to the road out of town. She'd then circle back around once she got out into the dunes and make her way back into the salt pillars where the Tardis was hidden.

She wondered if it would be easier to repair the Tardis so that she could possibly make some food for them, instead of trying to get her flight worthy. Alec had spoken at length about how the Tardis when she was fully functioning was able to create almost anything that one could think of and that it was one of her most basic functions. It was far easier to manipulate matter within her walls than to try to enter the Vortex he'd said, though he had never quite explained just what the Vortex was.

He'd tried to explain how the Tardis was able to interact with time in all eleven dimensions and that it was really just a simple thing that she did in order to know exactly where and when to take her pilots, but that actually entering the Time Vortex to begin the journey took far more energy that the ship just didn't have to spare.

It didn't help that whatever was going on with this planet seemed to be having a draining effect both on the ship and on Alec, though Jenny seemed to be far less affected.

She sighed softly when she remembered the things that her Dad had told her about the Time Lords and how they were able to see and understand time, and she always felt that she'd missed out on that part of being a Time Lord.

You're an echo, that's all. A Time Lord is so much more. A sum of knowledge, a code, a shared history, a shared suffering.

Those words had hounded Jenny for all the years of her long life, echoed through her nightmares after she'd cried herself to sleep and reminded her that she would never really belong no matter where she found herself.

Alec was the first person after her father and Donna to ever understand her, to understand what it meant to be so alone and so very different. Even in this though, she was different and it was those differences that were most likely killing Alec and the Tardis.

Shaking her head with a soft growl, she wove her way through the crowd and tried to avoid the larger groups of people so that she could slip out of town without being noticed when she was knocked into by a woman nearly dragging an elderly man across the square.

As she opened her mouth to excuse herself, the woman muttered to the older man.

"I don't care how different they are, Grandfather. We can't get mixed up with strangers!"

Jenny stopped dead in her tracks, her head turning to follow the strange woman and her grandfather as she strained to hear the old man's reply but it was swallowed by the general noise of the marketplace.

"If you think they're that important, then we need to let the authorities know. They'll be able to…"

Jenny lost the woman in the crowd and couldn't hear the rest of her statement, but she could barely control the pounding of her hearts. There hadn't been strangers in town other than her for many weeks, maybe they would be able to help her a little bit if she told them that they were going to have trouble with the authorities. Maybe she could give them a place to hide in the Tardis, though she was hesitant to expose Alec to complete strangers who might decide to take advantage of one or both of them when they weren't expecting it.

She started looking around the marketplace for anyone out of place, anyone who didn't belong and might not even be aware that they would be on the authorities' radar soon. She knew firsthand how quickly the hysteria could be whipped up by the locals in order to run people out of town and she definitely didn't want to be caught up in any trouble if she could avoid it. She no longer had just herself to think about, but Alec as well and he was in no shape to run from anyone.

Jenny walked back through the marketplace, peering into the different stalls and standing on her tiptoes to try to see over the heads of the locals when she caught a brief glimpse of a face that she'd never thought to see again.

Jenny stopped dead, her hand rising to her mouth as she whispered, "Dad?"

Unable to believe that he was real when she'd just been thinking of him, Jenny nevertheless started to run across the marketplace towards the place that she'd seen him through the crowd. She didn't care if she was making a scene as she barreled through the crowd, she had to reach his side before he disappeared.

The crowd parted once more and sure enough, there was the Doctor just looking up as she tore across the marketplace and Donna was seated on a bench in front of him.

"DAD!"

The Doctor turned around just as a strange, dark-haired woman came running out of the crowd and threw herself into his arms. He let out a huff as she knocked the air from his lungs and brought his arms up instinctively to hug her when he heard Donna reply, "Dad?"

The Doctor looked down at Donna with total confusion even as the woman in his arms pulled back and looked up at him through tear stained eyes. "Is it really you?"

"Well, I don't know. I'm sorry I don't recognize you, maybe you have me confused with someone else?"

Donna however was looking at the woman with a slight frown, her hand reaching out to brush along her arm before she jerked her hand back with a gasp. "It's her, Doctor. Or at least she's part of it."

The woman looked to Donna and started crying once more before she crumpled into Donna's embrace. "I've missed you, Donna. I've missed the both of you so very much!"

Donna and the Doctor looked at each other over the woman's dark head and at the same moment whispered, "Jenny?"

"Is this your daughter, Doctor?" Wilf looked between the Doctor, Donna and the strange woman who seemed to recognize the two of them. He could see that they were both confused by the woman's appearance but something in the way she spoke seemed to be familiar to the both of them.

The woman looked up at the sound of Wilf's voice, cocking her head slightly as she tried to wipe ineffectually at the tears that were running nonstop down her cheeks. "Yes, I'm his daughter. My name is Jenny. Who are you?"

The man looked at the Doctor, whose face for the first time was completely unguarded and the raw anguish visible was enough to turn Wilf's heart in his chest. "I'm Wilfred Mott, Jenny. I'm Donna's grandfather."

"But you were dead. I FELT you die, there was no sign of regeneration energy. Martha checked! How is this possible? How did you...?" The Doctor was rambling, but couldn't seem to control himself as he tried to reconcile the petite, dark-haired woman in front of him with the woman he'd left behind.

Donna was laughing happily as she just hugged Jenny to her, uncaring that her mind was completely overloaded by the waves of happiness that were pouring off the younger woman in her arms. She felt flashes of sorrow, agony and a desperate worry in her mind but through it all an unbearable happiness. "She's alive, Doctor. What does it matter how she did it?"

Wilf looked from the Doctor to Donna, their reactions making him realize that the circumstances of this Jenny had to be extraordinary for the both of them to be so stunned by her reappearance on this strange planet. "Where'd you last see her, sweetheart? What happened that you're so surprised she's here and safe?"

"She died, Wilf. She died on a planet called Messaline, the same planet where she was born." The Doctor choked back a sob when he turned back to look at Jenny, his hearts breaking as he whispered, "And I left her body behind."

"Hang on a minute, she was born on that planet? How long were the two of you there, Doctor? Was Jenny a child when you thought she died?"

Donna looked to her grandfather, feeling the waves of concern pouring off him as he watched her hug the sobbing Jenny close to him. "She was made from a machine, Gramps. She was only a few days old when she died."

The Doctor seemed to shake off his shock and he knelt down beside Donna and Jenny, his hands rising up to touch her cheeks before he whispered, "Jenny, let me see what's happened to you."

Jenny turned back to him, her eyes widening when she felt his fingers touch her face in four separate points and suddenly she felt him in her mind, pressing gently against the barriers that she had in place in case of just such an attack.

Let me in, Jenny.

Donna sat there beside the two of them, her mind starting to slip away from the Doctor's in order to give him a moment of privacy with his daughter. The Doctor tore his gaze from Jenny's for a moment and looked at her, shaking his head and pulling her back into his mind before he turned his focus back to Jenny.

"I don't know how to let you in, Dad."

"Don't worry, I know the way." The last was said on a whisper before she felt him brush aside her barriers and both the Doctor and Donna dove into her mind.

Wilf was concerned when he saw the three of them completely fade out, their eyes were open but it was obvious to him that they were no longer in front of him. He turned around to look across the marketplace, feeling suddenly exposed and responsible for watching out for them.

It was obvious that there was a bond between them that he couldn't quite understand, a bond that seemed far more than just a paternal bond on the Doctor's part and he wondered just how Jenny thought of Donna. If the two of them were on that planet together, and Jenny was born on that planet, he wondered if maybe there was more than he realized between the three of them. He tried to still the excitement in his heart and simply stood guard over them while they got reacquainted.

"No, Dad. I don't want you to see that right now." Jenny pulled back from the Doctor, her motion breaking the contact with her father but not before he'd seen more than she'd expected him to see.

The look on the Doctor's face was terrifying and Donna's expression was no less forbidding. "They tortured you."

Wilf turned back around sharply, his eyes widening as he heard the Doctor speak in a cold, dead voice. The simple words caused a chill to race down his spine. "What do you mean, torture?" He took a step closer to the younger woman, angry that someone would torture anyone and especially someone who was important to his granddaughter.

Jenny looked up at Wilf through haunted eyes, eyes he noticed that were eerily similar to the Doctor's when he lost himself in his more painful memories. He felt tears burn at the pain that was quickly hidden in her gaze. "I'm so sorry, love."

Donna hugged Jenny tight to her, burying her face in the younger woman's hair as she sobbed softly for the pain that this woman had suffered after they'd left her behind on Messaline.

"They're long since dead, Father and I survived. It's okay, really."

The Doctor looked at her, his eyes burning through the thin, brave façade that she tried to throw up in defense to his inspection. She was frightened by the cold, forbidding expression on his face and the fire that seemed to blaze out of control in his eyes.

"No, Jenny, it's not okay." He seemed to come back to himself with a start, his mind touching Donna's gently as he tried to soothe her weeping in his mind. He gathered her close to him, his own hearts breaking into a million pieces as he thought of the torment that his daughter had faced after they'd left her stranded on Messaline. Not knowing anything of what it meant to be a Time Lord, and not understanding even the most basic rules and limits of her species.

The Doctor was distraught and felt himself slipping into a dark place when he thought of what else had happened to her that she hadn't let him see and he promised himself that he would find out just how long she'd been wandering the universe and what all had happened to her in order for her to now have regenerated into at least one different body.

He looked up when he saw that people were moving through the marketplace, but casting curious glances their way as the three of them huddled on a bench with an old man standing watch over them. "We're making too much of a scene here right now, we've got to get out of sight. Come on, I'll take you back to the Tardis."

Jenny jumped to her feet and shook her head, taking the Doctor and Donna's hands and smiling towards Wilf to include him before she began to walk between the buildings and out to a dusty road. "No, Dad. I'm taking care of someone, and he's really sick. Actually, I think he's dying but I'm hoping that maybe you can help. At least you can maybe help us with some food? We're just about out of money and there isn't much food left to be had."

The Doctor frowned at Jenny as she led the way out of town, but took her hand in his and nodded as he let himself be led along the road towards this mysterious person in need of their help. "Of course we'll help you both with food and medicine, we're going to take you with us." He paused as he looked down into her eyes, "Unless you want to stay on this planet?" His voice betrayed the fear he felt at having found his daughter again only to possibly lose her again.

Jenny laughed and shook her head, hugging her father tight before whispering, "No we don't want to stay here, we were actually trying to figure out how we could find you!"

The anger on the Doctor's face cleared and was transformed by a grin as he replied, "Well then, problem solved! I found you!"

Donna fell into step beside her grandfather, her arm slipping into his so that they could walk together out of town and into the searing desert beyond.

"How are you doing, Gramps?"

The older man looked at her with a sad smile on his face, his hand reaching over to pat hers softly as he replied, "I'm okay, sweetheart. The question is, how are you?"

She shook her head and blinked a few times, her eyes narrowing as she saw the golden strand flicker low along the ground and flow out over the desert just as Jenny's steps took them off the main road and into the shifting sands. She cocked her head, frowning as she unthinkingly reached out to the Doctor. It's not just her, Doctor. There's something or someone else that's involved in all this.

The Doctor touched her mind gently in acknowledgement, his caress flickering over her tortured senses for a brief moment before pulling away. She could feel the coil of tension drawing tight within him, his mind was already reeling with the glimpses they'd had into Jenny's past and she wasn't sure how he'd react when he found out all of her tortured life. She just hoped that the three of them were strong enough to keep him from falling once more into that dark and terrible place that always seemed so ready to devour him.

Donna came back to herself with a start when she realized that her grandfather was still waiting for her to answer his question, but his eyes were too knowing as he had watched her staring up at the Doctor with total concentration.

She blushed slightly under his intense perusal before she quipped, "I'm just fine, Gramps."

"Now don't you lie to me, sweetheart. I know when you're trying to pull the wool over my eyes. This Jenny girl has you rattled. Who is she? If she's the Doctor's daughter, is she…?"

Donna pulled back at his question and started laughing, "No, no Gramps. She really is just HIS daughter, I had nothing to do with that part of it."

Wilf's face fell and he squeezed her arm tight before he threw an angry look at the Doctor. "Oh you didn't, did you? And you were okay with him getting on with…?"

Donna couldn't help it, she started laughing harder. "With a machine, Gramps! We were held at gunpoint and a genetic sample was taken from him and that sample then turned into Jenny. It really was just him and a cloning machine."

"Oi! We both can hear you!"

Donna ducked her head with a smile, hugging her grandfather back even as they began to struggle through loose sand towards what looked like pillars in the distance.

"Hey, Jenny, how much farther do we have to go? Gramps is really starting to struggle now."

"Now, now, no need to fuss on my account, I'm just fine!"

Jenny turned back to look at the both of them, her red rimmed eyes were filled with concern as she pulled on her father's arm to slow down just a little bit. "I'm sorry, Wilfred, it's not much farther. Just up in those pillars ahead, can you make it that far?"

He smiled at the young girl and nodded, "Aye, sweetheart, I can make it that far. And please just call me Wilf! If you're family to him, then you're family to me!"

She cocked her head at his words but smiled, "Alright, Wilf, thank you. I'd love to hear more about how you know my dad."

Wilf laughed softly and nodded, "Now that's a story to tell!"

The Doctor looked back at Wilf with an affectionate smile, "Now, now Wilf. There's no need to carry tales. We can catch Jenny up on all of that when we're in a more comfortable place."

Donna started to shiver as waves of energy suddenly began to pour over her once more, now that they were outside of the town it seemed that the temporal energy doubled and tried to scour her mind clear. She could tell from that place in her mind that the Doctor felt the change in the waves of energy and was trying to help shoulder some of her pain. He was worried about her and could tell that she was fast heading towards complete overload and there was very little that he could do to help her other than to try to take on as much as possible.

Donna hated being a burden to him when he was struggling even more than she was on this planet and his emotional wounds had just been ripped open with the brief glimpse into Jenny's mind.

Stop it, Donna. You've never been a burden to me and you never will be. Especially not now, when we don't know what we're walking into but we'll figure it out together and we'll find a way to help Jenny begin to heal too.

Donna smiled softly even as she helped her grandfather struggle through the ever shifting sand, her mind clinging tightly to the Doctor's in order to keep some focus in the worsening storm.

It's bad, Doctor. Whatever happened to her, it's bad.

She shouldn't have been surprised by the blast of cold anger that tore through her mind from the Doctor, but she was still shocked sometimes by the depths of absolute rage that could break through his control. I know, Donna and I intend to find out just how bad.

Donna's head snapped up at his comment, but before she could think of a reply they suddenly found themselves walking through a field of strange looking mineral pillars. The Doctor reached out and touched once of the pillars, his fingers coming away coated with a white substance that he promptly brought to his mouth to lick. "It's a pillar of salt, or something very similar to it." The Doctor was reaching into his coat pocket for his sonic when Jenny distracted him by stopping in front of one of the larger pillars.

"Here we are, Dad. I'm sorry that I took you the long way around, but I've been careful not to come back from the same direction every time just in case."

Jenny smiled back at the both of them, before she lifted her hand and then stepped into the side of one the pillar.

"What?" the Doctor whispered before he too reached up and followed Jenny into the side of the pillar.

"What in the world, Donna?" Wilf looked to Donna in confusion, but he could see that she was just as confused as she was.

"I don't know, Gramps but let's find out!"

Donna took her grandfather's hand and reached up to the same spot that she'd seen Jenny and the Doctor touch, before she clenched her eyes tightly closed and stepped through the pillar and into cool darkness beyond.

Donna and Wilf stumbled through the opening and nearly fell into the cavernous space that was hidden in the pillar, both of them looking around them and then to the Doctor with a smile.

"Why it's one of them Tardis things, isn't it, Doctor?"

The Doctor was frozen to the spot as he stood looking across the space at a ginger haired man that was just struggling to sit up from where he'd been laying down. The Doctor's eyes were slowly widening as he saw the tumultuous dance of time around the man's prone form and then he felt that brush of energy that could only be from another Time Lord.

Donna gasped when she caught sight of the man lying on the ground, her hands flying to her mouth as she very clearly saw the golden strand of energy snap into existence and flare brightly between Jenny and the strange man before it melted away once more. She started to cry softly when she felt the softest of touches brush against her mind, a caress that she hadn't felt since before the Doctor tried to save her from the metacrisis. "It's you!"

"Donna? Doctor? How did you find us?"

The Doctor's mind was flying in a thousand different directions as he recognized the unlikely man lying on the floor across the room, even though the man now wore a different face, one that looked disturbingly like Donna now that he thought about it.

But there was no way that he could be here in this universe, this wasn't supposed to be possible. He was supposed to be in the other universe safe from his worst instincts and safe from being able to wreak any more havoc on the universe. Things had just finally settled down with him and Donna, and he'd finally allowed himself to let go of so much of the pain that had been haunting him throughout his past. He'd shut the door on painful memories, on the anger and resentment that he hadn't realized he'd been harboring for so long and now it was all being torn open again.

But it wasn't the appearance of his double that had him worried, it was who might have come along with him.

"Where's Rose?"